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A friend of mine's son wrapped up his senior year of high school back in early June. This is a private school and finals start on a Wednesday and end on a Wednesday. Graduation is the Sunday after finals end.
She got a phone call from the school on the Thursday after finals ended informing her that her 18 year old son wasn't eligible for graduation. He could walk with his classmates, but he didn't officially graduate from HS.
Apparently what happened is that her straight-A in all subjects kid received a D as a final grade in an elective math class he took. He had not only completed all of the math requirements (in years and subject matter), he surpassed them. The kid loves math so much and was so good at it (up until he took this particular class, apparently) she sent him to summer school every summer since he was in 8th grade so he could take math classes for credit.
Instead of skating through his senior year he decided to take a high level "out there" math class the school offered, but it wasn't a required class. She told me the name of the class - advanced calculus with differentials and linear something or other. I'm lucky I passed my calc class freshman year of college.
From what she has told me the school policy is that if you get a "D" as a final grade in any class as a senior, you did not fulfill your requirements, therefore, you won't graduate from HS.
I don't know if her math whiz kid got a case of "senioritis" after he was accepted to his Ivy League dream college (he applied for early acceptance) or what happened. Apparently he was maintaining a C throughout the year and failed his final. She's livid with her kid but she's also pretty upset with the school. Mostly with the school because after having to demand to see his graded final, his overall average for the class ended up being a 69.25.
What makes it worse is that the school let the college know that he didn't graduate before they told her. She's been on the phone with the college admissions office and they aren't budging. They told her that they would defer his acceptance for a year or if he cared to take a summer class in the same math class they would reevaluate his file once the class was completed with a grade higher than a D. The problem with that is that this class is NOT offered as a summer school class - not at the HS, not at any college she can find. Apparently an equivalent high-level math class will not suffice either.
So after a few weeks of back and forth, she and her husband are now taking all of her kid's graded homework assignments/quizzes/tests/midterm/ final to a math professor at the Ivy League in the state we live in - at the suggestion of (and arranged by) the high school head master. This professor has agreed to look over everything to find any mistakes the HS math teacher may have made in grading, to find that extra %, if it exists, so she can present any inaccuracy in grading, lack of consistency, or flat out mistakes by her son's HS teacher.
I told her that I hope he doesn't find anything that will lower her sons grade....and of course she didn't like that.
So what does anyone think about this? Should a kid who has more credits than necessary to graduate and takes an elective class - high level, not like a pottery class - passes the class by the skin of his teeth but not up to the school requirement of passing for "graduation purposes", be held to the same standard as if it were a core requirement class?
I think if the kid was in fact accepted into the Ivy League school on own merit before this happened, then I do not think this is a kid who will be scrutinized on points earned that should be taken away. I think you just have to find a very kind Ivy League professor And have a very kind merciful attitude to this grade reviewer who will then likely give the student the benefit of the doubt standard. If it can be deemed right looking at it in a certain way, points received honored.
Partial points for conceptual accuracy with wrong final answer due to mechanical error (integrating by parts and you subtract a negative number that is being integrated in a negative domain can be triple minus sign)... In a multi-step question can warrant partial credit the teacher may have missed over if the answer is wrong for silly reason the student added a number by mistake by confusing the - signs
Right, that .75 percent -- in reality -- has absolutely no bearing on the student. Not getting a diploma and losing your college chances over what is literally nothing at all, is a perfect testament to the broken system and bad policy.
This is an extremely poor excuse to justify a horrible policy. Someone may as well come up and punch you in the face under the claim that "life is not fair." Hey, let's just let anyone do any ol' thing they want, because after all, life is not fair, so why not make it worse instead of better?
Yes - "life is not fair" is a terrible argument, period!
I think if the kid was in fact accepted into the Ivy League school on own merit before this happened, then I do not think this is a kid who will be scrutinized on points earned that should be taken away. I think you just have to find a very kind Ivy League professor And have a very kind merciful attitude to this grade reviewer who will then likely give the student the benefit of the doubt standard. If it can be deemed right looking at it in a certain way, points received honored.
Partial points for conceptual accuracy with wrong final answer due to mechanical error (integrating by parts and you subtract a negative number that is being integrated in a negative domain can be triple minus sign)... In a multi-step question can warrant partial credit the teacher may have missed over if the answer is wrong for silly reason the student added a number by mistake by confusing the - signs
I believe this issue has been resolved. However, most admissions are contingent upon final HS grades.
A friend of mine's son wrapped up his senior year of high school back in early June. This is a private school and finals start on a Wednesday and end on a Wednesday. Graduation is the Sunday after finals end.
She got a phone call from the school on the Thursday after finals ended informing her that her 18 year old son wasn't eligible for graduation. He could walk with his classmates, but he didn't officially graduate from HS.
Apparently what happened is that her straight-A in all subjects kid received a D as a final grade in an elective math class he took. He had not only completed all of the math requirements (in years and subject matter), he surpassed them. The kid loves math so much and was so good at it (up until he took this particular class, apparently) she sent him to summer school every summer since he was in 8th grade so he could take math classes for credit.
Instead of skating through his senior year he decided to take a high level "out there" math class the school offered, but it wasn't a required class. She told me the name of the class - advanced calculus with differentials and linear something or other. I'm lucky I passed my calc class freshman year of college.
From what she has told me the school policy is that if you get a "D" as a final grade in any class as a senior, you did not fulfill your requirements, therefore, you won't graduate from HS.
I don't know if her math whiz kid got a case of "senioritis" after he was accepted to his Ivy League dream college (he applied for early acceptance) or what happened. Apparently he was maintaining a C throughout the year and failed his final. She's livid with her kid but she's also pretty upset with the school. Mostly with the school because after having to demand to see his graded final, his overall average for the class ended up being a 69.25.
What makes it worse is that the school let the college know that he didn't graduate before they told her. She's been on the phone with the college admissions office and they aren't budging. They told her that they would defer his acceptance for a year or if he cared to take a summer class in the same math class they would reevaluate his file once the class was completed with a grade higher than a D. The problem with that is that this class is NOT offered as a summer school class - not at the HS, not at any college she can find. Apparently an equivalent high-level math class will not suffice either.
So after a few weeks of back and forth, she and her husband are now taking all of her kid's graded homework assignments/quizzes/tests/midterm/ final to a math professor at the Ivy League in the state we live in - at the suggestion of (and arranged by) the high school head master. This professor has agreed to look over everything to find any mistakes the HS math teacher may have made in grading, to find that extra %, if it exists, so she can present any inaccuracy in grading, lack of consistency, or flat out mistakes by her son's HS teacher.
I told her that I hope he doesn't find anything that will lower her sons grade....and of course she didn't like that.
So what does anyone think about this? Should a kid who has more credits than necessary to graduate and takes an elective class - high level, not like a pottery class - passes the class by the skin of his teeth but not up to the school requirement of passing for "graduation purposes", be held to the same standard as if it were a core requirement class?
If the kid got a D in differential equations as a senior in high school, I don't think that indicates senioritis, nor she the student's parents be upset.
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